In morning trade on Tuesday, shares of Whiting were down as much
as 20% after being halted for trade at the market open as Whiting
announced that it priced the stock offering at $30 per share.
Shares of Whiting closed at $38.39 on Monday.

The thing to dislike here for investors is what is called
"dilution."
By issuing more stock, any earnings the company brings in will be
divided across a larger number of shares, reducing earnings for
existing shareholders.

As of December 31, Whiting had just under 167 million shares
outstanding, so Monday's announced offering is about 20% dilutive
— meaning current shareholders will get about 80% of the earnings
they would have previously received once the newly issued shares
come to market.

Issuing new debt also makes the prospect of being acquired seem
more distant, as an acquirer would now be on the hook for an
additional $1.75 billion in addition to the $5.6 billion in debt
the company had outstanding at the end of 2014.

Over the last year, shares of Whiting have fallen about 45% as
the price of crude oil has crashed, and Whiting made our latest
list of "Most
Controversial Stocks" in the market.

On February 25, the
company announced fourth quarter production that was up 30%
over the prior year while adjusted earnings per share declined by
44%.

In its earnings release, the company also announced a capital
budget of $2 billion, down about 50% from the prior year. In the
company's earnings statement, Whiting CEO James Volker said, "We
will focus our operations on our highest rate-of-return
properties. At the same time, we are seeing lower completed well
costs through service company price reductions and technology
applications."

Bloomberg's
report earlier this month said Whiting had reached out to
potential buyers including Norwegian oil giant Statoil and said
Whiting has been "exploring the sale of its oil and gas
processing assets in North Dakota."